The Light
by ChristianBookNerd
Summary: Contest! With all the world's disappointments, the Cahills really need to see some light! And it's YOU, fellow Cahills, that will show them that there is still hope! (Story and contest rules inside.)


"Life's a mess," Amy said aloud to no one in particular. Flipping through the news channels and scrolling down Cahill updates on her laptop made her even more depressed than usual. Returning to normal life had been hard with deaths to remind her of other's cruelty. She had really wanted to give up during the clue hunt and during the Vesper incident, but kept going. What was different this time was the return home. She felt her life view would never turn back to a brighter perspective. Too much had been taken from her. And looking at the news and the Cahills, she saw the world was never what she thought it used to be. Especially when her mind was not occupied by Cahill business, she seemed to dwell too much on the past tragedies.

"Amy, can you turn the channel," her brother asked, sitting on the sofa across from her, "This is getting depressing."

"Fine," she said, changing it to some cartoons. It felt wrong to block out the messed-up world, but Amy had enough of it. "You can't tune out the world forever, Dan."

Dan looked a little surprised at his sister. "I'm not 'tuning it out', I'm just not dwelling on it so much. There's good in the world, too. You know that." Dan was pondering over how much her sister had changed. What happened to his sister that believed in forgiveness and hope and all of that other stuff?

"I don't see it if there is," she replied bitterly.

"Come on, Amy. There's a bunch of bad, but there's good, too!" Dan said. An idea popped in his head. Maybe if she didn't listen to him, she'd listen to other Cahills. Amy seemed preoccupied on her laptop, so Dan headed back to his bedroom, opened his laptop, got on his email, and began typing:

_To All Cahills:_

_We need some light!_

"**The Light" Contest Rules**

Calling all Cahills! Want to see some encouraging stories? Want to be part of a contest? Well, do we have a contest for you!

"The Light" contest consists of categories to write in. Each of these have their own requirements. These stories are made to bring more hope to people like Amy who need a little persuading that there's hope in the world! Yes, some of these categories are Christian (and we encourage all Christian writers to try to participate!), but some are made for anyone to submit an entry in that fits the category!

**Overall Rules:  
**No swearing and/or romance-y physical contact. These are meant to be encouraging stories anyone could read. With this said, most story submissions should be K or K+, although they could be T with good reason and still with a good meaning.  
When submitted, please PM me (ChristianBookNerd) or The 39 foreva to let us know you submitted if you wanna be technically "in" the contest. What's to win? Well, since we can't actually give you something, bragging rights and a chapter dedicated to you in both of our stories (Get Back Up and Complications). It's not a lot, I know; but hey, you won a contest!  
There are no word limits or chapter limits. Write what you think is good. If you feel like you can express a lot in little words or need more writing to express your idea fully, write it so! We don't have a point of view for you to use or a format. It's your story; make it awesome!  
OK, but there _is _a deadline. But hey, you've got a month from the day this contest was uploaded! (Which, should be June 27.) A _month_! Certainly that's enough time to get an entry in?

**The Following Categories and Their Rules:**

_Friendship:  
_This category is made to share the good of friendship and trust. This could be an unlikely friendship formed, a friendship restored, or a story about a fun memory between the Cahill characters. Only "requirement"? A hug. Surely that's not too hard!

_Forgiveness:  
_This category is for a story for forgiveness. This could be a deep, life changing forgiveness between people or an everyday kind of forgiveness that the world needs more of.

_Family:  
_This is could be for the Cahills as a whole or a parent/child or sibling/sibling story. It could be from a fun memory to a sad, but still hopeful, story. Just make sure family is emphasized. Oh, but put a hug in there! We wanna see some sort of family love!

_Act of Kindness:  
_This is a really broad category. This could be a story about something like words of encouragement shared or to a life-changing act of kindness. We want big or small Cahill stories!

_God's Love:  
_Obviously more of a Christian category, this story is about emphasizing what the world needs to hear. God's love. It's not a hard category if you've experienced it yourself! Think about stories of blessings that are clearly God-sent because He cares about us so much or maybe someone demonstrating God's love and telling another what it is. The one requirement? Use a Bible verse!

_Christian Salvation:  
_This category is about another character accepting Jesus as their Lord! This should be biblical salvation, so the character must admit that they're sinful, believe on the Lord, and accept Jesus as their savior. There can be no other joy like this! If you've really experienced this, you know what to write. Just make sure it's a pretty clear story, as others who may not know Jesus as their savior might read it. Only requirement, use Scripture!

_God's Sovereignty:  
_This is a category that basically says, "God is in control of both the good and the bad. He's in control and no one can overcome Him." Tell a story with the Cahills that shows God's sovereignty. Requirement: Use a Bible verse! (Again!)

Yes, these categories are pretty broad, but we want you to have control over what you write! Just write an encouraging story! PM us when you upload it to officially submit it. Sometime close after the deadline, we'll pick the winners for _each _category. (Which means if you're the only one that submits it into that category, you'll win!) If you have any questions, please PM me or 39 Clues foreva for us to answer. Please participate! It's more fun when y'all do!


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